Sunday, December 22, 2013

Greyfriar's Bobby - by Eleanor Atkinson

Free US/UK Kindle
Classic

For
Christmas, I want to present one of Scotland's most beloved classics, Greyfriar's Bobby. This version is by
Eleanor Atkinson, who is a Hoosier from my home state of Indiana. (US Edition) (UK Edition)
The novel is from 1912 and has a
Christmas tie:

Next Christmas she means to
tell the story of Greyfriars Bobby, and how all his little Scotch friends are
better-behaving and cleaner and happier because they have that wee dog to
love."

Warning, dialect alert!
But the dialect is placed in such a way, that the meaning is
explained. You can always use your
dictionary. Because I am American and I
read many books from England, Scotland, and Ireland, I bought the Oxford
Dictionary of English and made it my default Kindle dictionary. It is very handy for slang whether I am
reading a classic or Maeve Binchy! British
readers might want to make the New Oxford
American Dictionary their default dictionary.

"The sonsie, wee—why, he's
all but starved!"

Pale with pity, Mr. Traill
snatched a plate of broth from the hands of a gaping waiter laddie, set it
under Bobby's nose, and watched him begin to lap the warm liquid eagerly.

Both dictionaries define "sonsie" as having an "attractive and healthy
appearance." The narrator goes on
to explain that the dog's appearance is deceptive and his coat hides his true
condition.

I want to wish all my faithful readers very happy
holidays! I am spending Christmas in
Indiana. It is about 30 degrees
different from my home in San Antonio, Texas.

This blog is a guide to the best free
and inexpensive classic literature for the US & UK Kindle. If you enjoy my
suggestions, please tell your friends who read to give my blog a try.

For a nominal fee of 99 cents/pence, you can subscribe to
this blog and have it automatically download on your Kindle. (It is one of the top 100 blogs on
Amazon.)This gives you the convenience of being able to download the books
directly to your Kindle, instead of downloading them to your computer and then
transferring them to your Kindle. It also helps support my blog.

UK
readers may go to this
Amazon link to subscribe. (Slightly more than half my readers are
from the UK)

Thank
to all my readers, whether you subscribe on your Kindle or whether you read it
online. I love to get good reviews! Who wouldn't? Should you
care to leave a review, follow these links for UK
readers or US
readers. You may e-mail me at marilyn@marilynlitt.com

About Me

I am a Hoosier who spent many years in Chicago and am now in San Antonio. My passion is reuniting lost dogs with their families. I am the Director of the Facebook page, Lost Dogs of Texas and a co-founder of "Lost Dog Awareness Day."

I am not new to reuniting families. After Katrina, I helped people in evacuee shelters in San Antonio to track their missing family members. After that work ended, I started a volunteer group that reunited over 1500 Katrina animals with their families by deciphering information online and tracing evacuees.

I am writing a book about two stolen Yorkies who were found after an amazing eighteeen month search. It is tentatively titled "Finding Baxter and Cooper: A Woman, a Private Investigator and their Successful Search for Two Stolen Dogs."